Petrella v Fairport Baptist Home
2020 NY Slip Op 06624 [188 AD3d 1650]
November 13, 2020
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, December 30, 2020


[*1]
 Dianna Petrella, Appellant,
v
Fairport Baptist Home, as Operator of Fairport Baptist Homes, Respondent.

Laduca Law Firm, LLP, Rochester (Michael Steinberg of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.

Hurwitz & Fine, P.C., Buffalo (V. Christopher Potenza of counsel), for defendant-respondent.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Monroe County (William K. Taylor, J.), entered May 21, 2019. The judgment awarded plaintiff money damages upon a jury verdict.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Plaintiff commenced this action seeking damages for pain and suffering arising from a bedsore she developed during a stay at defendant's nursing home. The amended complaint asserted causes of action for negligence and violation of Public Health Law § 2801-d. The matter proceeded to trial, where the jury awarded plaintiff damages of $50,000 for past pain and suffering on her negligence cause of action. The jury did not find that defendant violated Public Health Law § 2801-d. On appeal, plaintiff contends that Supreme Court abused its discretion in refusing to instruct the jury on 10 NYCRR 415.12 (c) as a basis to find defendant liable on the section 2801-d cause of action.

Even assuming, arguendo, that the court abused its discretion in denying plaintiff's request for that charge, we nevertheless affirm inasmuch as plaintiff stipulated that she sought only a "judgment as a matter of law" and the remedy for the alleged error would be a new trial on the Public Health Law cause of action, which is separate and distinct from the negligence cause of action (see Zeides v Hebrew Home for Aged at Riverdale, 300 AD2d 178, 179 [1st Dept 2002]), not a judgment on a claim that was never considered by the jury (see generally Peguero v 601 Realty Corp., 58 AD3d 556, 564 [1st Dept 2009]). Present—Whalen, P.J., Centra, Peradotto, Lindley and Bannister, JJ.